There’s a piece of Saskatchewan Roughriders history that won’t be found in the history books. For more than 25 years, it’s been helping golfers play a different game just outside Bruno, northeast of Saskatoon. Each putt comes with a little extra Rider pride at the Bruno Golf and Country Club, where artificial Turf from the Riders’ former home, Taylor Field, has served as the greens at the town’s nine-hole golf course. But the clock is running down on the historic turf as plans move forward to replace it. “I remember Joel Runge was one of the guys. He came in with a piece of metal. He got a sample of the Taylor Field turf and came and asked me, you know, what do you think if we replace the sand greens, and yeah, I thought, well, that’s the big improvement over sand greens for sure. It was great back then,” Jeff Mark, treasurer of the Bruno Golf and Country Club, told CTV News. It was 2000, and the proposal to the town was about $22,000 to replace all nine sand greens with repurposed turf from Taylor Field which was eventually torn down in 2017, but a piece of its legacy has remained in Bruno. “I don’t think there was a lot of opposition at all because it was a great thing. We had sand greens prior to that, and that is a little more challenging,” said Bruno Deputy Mayor Debbie Kramer. The connection to Saskatchewan football history hasn’t been lost on golfers. “When someone doesn’t know it’s from Taylor Field, and you tell them, they’re very surprised, and then it’s kind of a nostalgic thing,” golf club president, Adam Basset says. “You tell the right person, they remember going there to the old stadium.” More than two decades later, the historic turf has served its purpose. The course stays open until the snow flies, but the greens are showing their age. “Like there’s not much fiber sticking out anymore. It’s pretty hard,” Basset said. Four of the original Taylor Field greens remain, including the third hole, where a special number three from the 30-yard line at the old stadium has brought good luck for some golfers and perhaps not so much for others. “You try to approach them, and your ball just bounces off,” Mark said. Now, the club is looking to the future. “A number of younger people moved back to town and got involved. And they certainly spearheaded getting the golf club more active and getting these new greens in place,” Mark said. Fundraising efforts from special golf tournaments and leagues have helped the club raise about $160,000 for replacement greens. It’s a big jump from the $22,000 it cost to install the originals. “That’s the non-nostalgic, sad part of it. Too bad you can’t get old prices, right,” Basset joked. The plan isn’t to throw away the past, either. The number three could be preserved in the clubhouse, while some of the old turf has already found a second life with Bruno’s archery club. It’s an indoor space, in the former curling rink, so it likely won’t be as harsh for the old turf. The next plan for the golf club is to replace the aging clubhouse down the road.
